As Australia records shrinking numbers of COVID-19 cases, nature is healing. People are seeing friends and family. Workers are going back to their offices. And airplanes have even returned to the sky — to the displeasure of a few of the city’s winged inhabitants.
Redditor u/Hoochiemama8 posted a clip of a livestream showing some baby peregrine falcons responding to, presumably, one of the first planes they would have ever heard.
In a video titled 367 Collins st Falcon chicks have their first experience of having an aeroplane flying overhead in Melbourne, a few chicks are captured moving about their nest.
When the plane’s engines begin to roar overhead, the baby falcons cower together in the corner.
367 Collins st Falcon chicks have their first experience of having an aeroplane flying overhead in Melbourne from r/australia
Who’s filming a nest of falcons in Melbourne?
The clip of the Melbourne baby falcons is taken from a Youtube account aptly named Melbourne CBD Falcons, which provides a 24/7 stream of the nest (which is a very popular genre of livestream).
According to the account, the peregrine falcons have been living in nest boxes on the building’s ledge since the early 1990s. And in 2017, a high definition camera was installed to share the Melbourne falcons’ going-ons with the world.
The exact location of the birds is not known: it is a closely-kept secret — “this is for the welfare of the Peregrines and the interests of management on site”, the video’s description reads — and any attempts to doxx the birds in the livestream’s chat are deleted.
And viewers are warned not to be too precious.
“This is an active wildlife site. A 100% positive outcome is not guaranteed. Rescues will not occur. This means that some birds may not survive – whether due to injury, illness or failure to thrive – and that no interventions to save them will be done,” the account writes.
And so if you’re looking to follow the ups-and-downs of life as a falcon, tune into the livestream anytime to check it out.